


BATIM: Terrible Sin

by TheOneShadowFox258



Series: BATIM: Terrible Sin [2]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Joey Gay Studios, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Semi-Canonical Character, i also ignore a fair amout of canon info, in which i take popular headcanons and completely ignore them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:53:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27904786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOneShadowFox258/pseuds/TheOneShadowFox258
Summary: Countless loops. Countless deaths.Henry wants it to change. And it does, after a split-second decision throws everything off the rails. It's a little more than Henry bargained for, but he can work with it.But, as they say, wandering is a terrible sin.[Tags will be added, warnings will be updated. Nothing is set in stone.]
Relationships: Grant Cohen/Jack Fain, Joey Drew/Henry Stein, Sammy Lawrence/Norman Polk, Thomas Connor/Allison Pendle
Series: BATIM: Terrible Sin [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1930459
Comments: 5
Kudos: 30





	1. A Broken Reel

**Author's Note:**

> Ok! This is the official fanfic for my AU, Terrible Sin! This is meant to be canon divergent, and I will not take any corrections or discourse concerning my timeline/character interpretations :)
> 
> If you wanna check out more of my AU, pop on over to my tumblr!
> 
> https://terrible-sin-batim-blog.tumblr.com/
> 
> There is also no posting schedule at the moment. Maybe one day, but today is not that day.

“It's simply awe-inspiring what one can accomplish with their own hands! A lump of clay can turn to meaning... if you strangle it with enough enthusiasm.” 

Henry sighed, setting the tape back down. He knew these words by heart now, could recite them from memory. 

“Look what we've built! We created life itself, Henry! Not just on the silver screen, but in the hearts of those we've entertained with our fancy moving pictures!”

‘Did we though?’ Henry thought bitterly, looking around the throne room, at the looping cartoons on the screen. ‘Or did I?’

“But... when the tickets stopped selling, when the next big thing came along, only the monsters remained. Shadows of the past.”

Shadows of their dreams. Henry looked back at the tape.

“But you can save them, Henry! You can peel it all away!”

Sighing, Henry picked up the reel on the throne, the chair that had once been in Joey’s office.

“You see, there's only one thing Bendy has never known: He was there for his beginning, but he's never seen…”

“The End.” Henry said, on cue, then paused, realizing that he had spoken alone. The tape had ended before Joey could finish.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

A growl brought his attention back to the matter at hand.

The Ink Demon peered over him from behind the throne, it’s twisted grin wide. Henry involuntarily stepped back as the demon began shifting before his very eyes, growing larger, it’s teeth sharpening as it sunk down behind the chair. Then, it climbed over with a snarl, having transformed into a large, fanged beast. It roared at Henry, and the old animator recoiled from it, then braced himself.

The Ink Demon backhanded him through a wall, and the chase was on.

Scrambling to his feet, Henry went on autopilot, running through the maze-like corridors, pulling levers and avoiding the Ink Demon as it tried to run him down. From his experience, getting run over by a giant ink monster wasn’t pleasant. Once all the levers were pulled, Henry made a beeline for the door. He went through the motions of having the Ink Demon shatter the ink filled pipes, causing the room to go dark and the demon to vanish. Henry hurried for the door, clutching the End reel tightly to his chest.

Henry found himself back in the throne room, and he hurried for the reel stand. Just as he went to put the reel in, he stopped.

For once, in the countless loops, Henry hesitated. The artist looked down at the reel, staring at it.

Would this really change anything, or was he dooming himself to another loop?

Every new loop began at the End, when he played the reel, once he left Joey’s apartment, and walked right back into the start. Every time, Joey said the same thing, without fail, and Henry found himself unable to speak until he walked through the door. Henry couldn’t help but feel like something was off about that sequence, that it was just a bridge between the beginning and the end, and interlude of sorts, as short as it may be. 

It always felt too cut and dry, too repetitive. Joey never deviated from his script, his speech about the paths the two of them took, and Henry knew for a fact that Joey wasn’t the type for repetition. He liked change and surprises. It’s why he never planned anything.

So why did he insist on this never changing loop, this continuous song and dance that had to be driving both of them up a wall by now?

A snarl behind him made him turn around sharply; the Demon was behind him,baring its fangs. It took a step forward, and Henry took a step back, stumbling over the large gears that made up the steps to the throne. It advanced again, and Henry found himself backed up into the office chair serving as the seat. The Ink Demon reared its arm back, and Henry hurled himself over the edge of the chair, hitting the floor roughly as the demon’s claws tore through its throne. It simply sniffed at the damage, not seeming too concerned, before it turned its attention back on Henry.

Henry shot to his feet as the demon approached him once again, growling. The animator backed up, hitting the wall behind him, hands gripping the End reel.

Now acutely aware that he was still holding it, he looked down at it.

He heard a sniff in front of him and looked up; The Ink Demon had its non-existent eyes on the reel as well.

Then it reached for it.

Henry jerked it away before the demon could grab it, and it snarled, moving to claw at the artist again, and Henry threw himself out of the way, barely managing to stay on his feet. He heard its claws rake across the wall where he had been standing, followed by a roar. It wheeled on him stomping towards him, fangs bared and horns back, but it still seemed focused on the reel.

The Ink Demon wanted the reel. Henry couldn’t discern why, but he knew he couldn’t let it have it.

But he didn’t want to play it either. That would just put him back at the start. 

One step forward, 10 steps back.

Henry couldn’t win with the reel, but he knew the Ink Demon could. He had seen the storyboards in Joey’s apartment; If the demon got the reel and destroyed it, it would win. But if Henry played the reel, both of them lost. There was no way around it.

As the demon stomped towards Henry, the artist backed up, circling around the throne. He had to buy himself time to think. But the Ink Demon was getting impatient, and Henry wasn’t coming up with any ideas.

Henry was an artist, sure; He had created Boris, Alice, and Bendy himself. But he couldn’t write the stories. He couldn’t dream up the plots of the cartoons. That had all been…

Joey.

For the first time in his life, Henry found himself asking a question he never imagined he would:

What would Joey do?

Ever impulsive and brash Joey Drew. He never had a plan, but in the spur of the moment, he could darn well make you believe he had one. 

And if Joey didn’t want someone to get something, he’d do anything necessary to keep it out of their reach.

Henry tripped backwards, having wandered a bit too close to the throne and caught his leg on one of the gear steps. He hit the ground with a grunt, and he heard the demon make a noise akin to a snicker as it approached, not in a hurry at all. Henry scrambled back, but the demon was advancing fast. So, Henry did the first self-preservating thing that came to mind:

He threw the reel at the demon.

The reel bounced off the demon’s head, right between where its eyes should be, and it shrieked, jerking back and covering its face with one hand. Henry watched the reel skitter away, then scrambled to his feet, running over to it and picking it back up. It’s plastic casing was cracked, the label now hanging on by one piece of tape. Henry stared at the damage for a moment, before a howl behind him made him face the Ink Demon again. 

Now or never. He’d pissed off the demon, and now he had no more chances.

Not even looking at the demon, Henry raised the reel above his head. The Ink Demon made an almost alarmed noise, quickly picking up on Henry’s intentions.

Making a sound that almost resembled a ‘NO!’, the Ink Demon rushed at Henry, and in that same moment, the animator threw the reel down with every bit of strength he could muster.

The plastic casing shattered, there was a shriek, and everything went white.


	2. A Familiar Face in a Hellish Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After breaking the reel, Henry gets the change he wanted. But what’s the cost?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, i was gonna post this tomorrow but i got bullied/j

Henry groaned, eyes tightly closed. His head was killing him.

Had the demon managed to run him over?

Pushing himself into a sitting position, Henry rubbed his head and clenching his jaw as the pain in his brain spiked, then it vanished. Then he opened his eyes, and he felt his heart sink.

He was back.

Back at the beginning.

But… He hadn’t gone through Joey’s apartment. Henry looked around, confused beyond belief. This was the studio. This was where he began the loop, right in front of the entrance. He could see the main lobby of the studio, and the one projector that was on, displaying nothing but a glowing white square. 

So why didn’t he go through Joey’s apartment? Why didn’t he have to sit through the long tirade his old friend went on, before walking through the door in his kitchen and into the studio? Shaking his head, Henry stood up, taking the seeing tool off his belt. He scanned around the small hallway of the entrance with it. None of the messages were different. The tally marks, the ‘I’M SORRY BUDDY’ written over the Sheep Songs poster, and the arrows telling him to turn back were all still there, glowing in gold. Henry sighed, putting the seeing tool away, and moving his glasses to rub his eyes.

“Well, back to the old grind…” he said to nobody, putting his glasses back in place and starting forward. He didn’t bother with snooping around. He had done that in countless other loops, and never found anything new.

Except for that odd secret room behind one of the Sheep Songs posters. He still didn’t know what that was about, or who that… person in there was. Henry didn’t bother questioning it. It was probably some little secret left for him to find. Something new.

So, he made his way to the Ink Machine.

As he walked into the room, he felt a shift in the atmosphere. He couldn’t tell what was different, but it put him on edge. Changes that were hardly perceptible yet glaringly obvious never seemed to be a good thing in this god forsaken studio.

Henry leaned over the railing, staring into the dark, cavernous opening he knew held the Ink Machine, the chains that kept it suspended vanishing into the pitch black. Henry was acutely aware of the hidden words beneath his feet, witten on the ground in invisible gold.

‘THERE NEVER WAS A CHOICE’

Henry collected the dry cells needed for the lift, plugged them in, and pulled the lever. 

Even if he had seen it a thousand times before, seeing the Ink Machine never ceased to fill him with awe, though, he suspected that was the intended result.

He stared at the machine for a long while. Having learned its intended purpose over the span of the loops, he knew he couldn’t completely blame the machine for all that had happened.

After all, the blame didn’t fall to one singular person, as much as he wished it would. Henry knew there was a lot more than what was on the surface. Anyone else would look at what happened in the studio and pin the blame to Joey without hesitation. But Henry knew that the machine wasn’t all Joey’s doing. Sure, he was the catalyst for its creation, but he didn’t build it. That blame fell to the Gent company repairman Henry kept finding tapes from; Thomas Connor. He could tell Thomas even knew something was up with the machine, with the things it spit out, but he never made any attempts to put a stop to it.

None of this was in perfect black and white. It was more like a muddled blotch of ink that had been smeared around and had water poured on it, causing it to bleed into various shades of grey.

Henry shook his head.

Or maybe, he just wasn’t the type to pin blame on a single person. There were factors one had to take into consideration.

Henry stepped away from the railing,

Then stopped.

He heard something, faintly.

Whistling?

Henry turned towards the door, head tilted. It was the Bendy opening theme. The only time he ever heard it was after that projector in the theater turned on by itself. But it shouldn’t be on yet.

Henry quickly walked out of the Ink Machine room, following the whistling. It led him all the way back to the animation department. 

Henry walked past his old desk, brushing his hand over the worn wood as he did. It was pretty much the same as he’d left it. His name was still carved into it near the bottom.

“I wasted so much time in this chair…” He said quietly. Then he turned to walk into the animation department.

At first, he didn’t see the source of the whistling, and was about to call himself crazy and move on. Then he saw a flicker of movement at one of the desks.

He looked over, and felt his jaw involuntarily drop.

Sitting at one of the artist desks was a little demon, its head hunched down and its tail swinging like a metronome to its whistling. It was happily scribbling away, having not seen Henry staring at him in disbelief.

Henry couldn’t believe it. It was an almost perfect Bendy. The Bendy he knew didn’t have a tail, but honestly, Henry couldn’t complain. He’d take anything over the Ink Demon.

Henry took a small step forward to get a closer look, and he heard the old wood creak loudly under his feet. The whistling abruptly stopped, as did Bendy’s pencil. Henry considered trying to quickly back out of the room, but the demon’s head was already up and looking at him, and Henry could see another thing that made him an imperfect copy of the toon. His eyes; they were more realistic, yet still toonish, with orange irises and pie-cut pupils, accompanied by dark rings under them.

The toon and the artist stared at each other for a moment, both of them wide-eyed. Then the toon darted off his seat and into the boarded up restroom nearby.

“Wait!” Henry called out, scurrying after him. The animator frantically peeked through the slats in the boards, trying to see the little demon. He was clearly hiding behind the cutout that was in there, as evident by the tail coming out from behind it.

“I know you’re in there. I can see your tail.”

The tail slunk behind the cutout. Henry sighed, shaking his head, though he couldn’t help but smile a little.

“Listen, I’m not going to hurt you.” Henry said, making his voice as gentle as possible. “My name is Henry. Henry Stein.”

Henry went silent as the small demon peeked out from behind the cutout.

“Henry…Stein?” Bendy said, tilting his head as he stared at the animator. “I… I know that name.”

“I used to work here.” Henry responded. “I-”

The demon was in Henry’s face in an instant, causing him to jolt and back up a bit.

“You created me, right???” Bendy asked excitedly. Henry nodded, and the demon’s grin grew wider. He crawled out of the boards, standing before Henry and looking up at him happily. “I can’t believe it! I get to meet my creator!” 

The little demon was bouncing in place, and Henry couldn’t help but smile.

“At least you’re happy to see me.”

“Why wouldn’t I be? You made me! You made all of us!”

“Us?”

“Yeah! Me, Alice, and Boris!”

Henry tilted his head. He was sure Joey had taken credit for the characters.  
“How do you know that?”

“Easy! Your desk! The sketches! Oh, and the stuff in Joey’s office!”

Ok, that made sense. His desk did seem to be untouched, at least his old sketches were, and Joey would definitely have any other works of his. But Joey’s office was several floors below them, all the way down in administration. How the little demon made it all the way up to animation was a mystery to Henry. But really, he didn’t care. He was here, and he was new. 

This had never happened in the countless loops Henry had been in. The only Bendy he had ever encountered was the Ink Demon, and he definitely wasn’t happy to see Henry. Or anyone for that matter. But now, there was a little three and a half foot tall demon standing before him, as giddy as could be at his arrival. It was… kind of heartwarming.

“Whaddya doing back here though?” Bendy asked as he stopped bouncing, tilting his head. “Didn’t you leave a long time ago?”

Henry sighed, rubbing his neck.

“I was invited back by Joey.” Henry said, letting his arm drop. “And now I’m stuck here.”

“I’m sure we can get you out! You try the door yet?”

Henry couldn’t hold back a snicker.

“Yes. Yes, I have. It’s locked.”

“It can’t be locked, it’s the front door!”

And like that, Bendy was trotting off. Henry actually did a double take before he realized the demon was walking off and followed. It didn’t take but a few quick steps to catch up.

“I’m telling you, Bendy. It’s locked.”

“No way. Who locks the front door to their studio so people can’t get out?”

‘Someone who doesn't want anyone to leave.’ Henry thought, but he didn’t say it out loud.

They got to the door, and Bendy walked over to it while Henry hung back. The demon reached up and twisted the handle, only for it to stop a quarter of the way. He frowned and jiggled the knob a bit, then rattled it insistently. Henry had to cover his mouth so he wouldn’t laugh as the toon turned to him.

“Ok, maybe it is locked.”

Henry snorted.

“No really?” He said through his hand.

“I didn’t think you were serious!”

Henry couldn’t hold back a laugh this time, though it was muffled by his hand.

“Hey! Don’t laugh at me unless I'm actually being funny!”

“I mean, it’s pretty funny to me.”

“Well, it ain’t to me!”

Henry laughed again, moving his hand away from his mouth.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up, Stein!”

Bendy tried to open the door again, just frustrating himself further while Henry laughed, then he threw his hand up with a huff, turning to the animator again. 

“Ok! It’s locked! What do you propose we do now, wise guy???”

Henry let his laughter die down into chuckling, composing himself as the toon demon impatiently tapped his foot, hands on his hips.

“Well,” Henry started once he’d calmed down. “I was going to start up the Ink Machine before I heard you whistling.”

Bendy stopped tapping his foot, giving Henry an incredulous look.

“Start up the Ink Machine? Now why would you wanna do that?” the demon asked, tilting his head. Henry shrugged. Even after all these loops, he didn’t know why he always felt so compelled to turn on the machine even after he had learned what came out of it.

“I just feel like I have to.” Henry admitted.

Bendy looked at him for another moment, then shrugged.

“Eh. Not like I have anything better to do. What needs to be done?”

Henry was a little surprised that Bendy was just ready to help him like that, especially since it came to the Ink Machine. He figured everything in the studio was afraid of it, or at least knew just what came out of it. But the little demon was looking at him expectantly, either oblivious to the horror the machine would unleash, or just ignorant. Henry didn’t know which was worse.

“Well… We have to get the items for the pedestal room-”

“Oh, I know what you’re talking about!” Bendy interrupted. “I’ve been in that room, I know what to get.”

“You know where to find it?” Henry asked. The toon nodded in response. Henry nodded back. “Ok, how about… I get the wrench, the cog and the plushy?”

“Sounds good to me! That leaves the well, the book, and the record, right?” Henry nodded, and the demon’s grin grew wider. “Alright, leave it to me, Henry!” 

And with that, the toon scampered off.

The moment he was gone, Henry let out a sigh, running a hand through his hair.

What was he supposed to do about this?

He wasn’t going to lie; He already enjoyed the little demon’s company. He made Henry genuinely laugh for the first time in a long time. But what was he supposed to do with him after they turned the machine on? The Ink Demon would be after Henry then, and he didn’t want to put Bendy in danger. 

Henry shook his head. Might as well cross that bridge when they got to it.

And to do that, they needed to turn on the machine.

Henry went to get the wrench first. He always hated seeing the torn open Boris clone on the dissection table. It always made him think of Buddy.

Henry walked up to the poor wolf and pulled the wrench out of its empty chest, giving it a small pat on the snout before walking out of the room. Then he went to the Ink Machine room to get the cog. Simple enough, since it was just sitting in the box he’d found one of the dry cells in. Then he went to get the plush. He walked into the theater and picked up the doll, giving it a small squeeze. It squeaked, and Henry smiled a bit. Then he was on his way. 

Items in tow, Henry headed to the pedestal room, finding that Bendy was already in there and had his items placed on their pedestals.

“What took ya so long?” The little demon teased, though he tried to look innocent. Henry just shook his head with a small smile and placed his items in their places.

“Alright, now we just have to fix the pressure.”

“That’s in the theater, right?”

“Yeah, it is.” Henry turned to the little demon. “You really know your way around here, huh?”

“Been here a long time.” Bendy said with a shrug. “You end up learning the place like the back of your hand.”

“Yeah... Guess you would.”

“Yeah…” For a second, Bendy’s mood seemed to sour, before he perked right back up. “Race you there!”

Bendy was off like a shot, and with a surprised “Hey!”, Henry took off after him.

Needless to say, Bendy made it before he did.

“Bendy,” Henry said once he caught up to the demon. “You can’t just run off like that.”

“Eh, I’ll be fine.” The toon said, waving his hand dismissively. “Nothin’ can catch me.”

“Fair enough, given how small you are.”

“Hey now!” Bendy interjected. “I’m not small. ‘Sides, you don’t seem to have much reach in the height department yourself.”

“At least I can reach the top shelf.” Henry said, walking around the demon, and going over to the pressure valve and turning it.

“Now listen- whOA-!” The toon’s snappy comeback was cut off when a nearby ink pipe burst and started flooding the floor. He quickly hopped up on a chair.

“Whoops, forgot it might do that.”

“Sure ya did, Henry.”

Henry chuckled, then picked up the little demon, carrying him safely to dry ground before setting him back down.

“You’re a devious old man, you now that?” Bendy said as the pair headed back towards the pedestal room.

“Says the demon.”

“Hey, I’m a nice demon!”

“Last I checked, you like to pull pranks on anyone you come across.”

“Well, I can’t be nice all the time.”

“You could give it a shot. Then maybe Alice wouldn’t be so mad all the time.”

“Eh she just doesn’t like fun.”

Henry gave a small “mhmm” as they walked back into the pedestal room. The artist went over to the switch, taking a hold of it, then hesitated.

What would happen now?

He had Bendy with him, a nearly perfect one at that. There was no way he’d be able to take him through everything he went through in the loops, right? Especially with the Ink Demon on his trail. Something told Henry that the Ink Demon wouldn’t appreciate the existence of another Bendy, especially one so close to what the Ink Demon was supposed to be.

“Henry?”

Bendy’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked at the toon.

“You ok?” Bendy asked. He looked worried, wringing his hands. “You looked… out of it for a second there.”

Henry stared at him for a moment, then blinked, shaking his head.

“I’m alright. Sorry.”

Bendy looked unconvinced, but he nodded, and he was back to smiling. Henry smiled back, then he turned back to the lever and pulled it.

All the lights dimmed, power being redirected to the Ink Machine, and Henry could hear the ink now churning through the walls. Faintly in the distance, he could hear the machine working. Bendy looked around at their now darkened surroundings, then moved closer to Henry.

“Well this just got creepy.”

“Yeah, a little…” Henry had grown used to the lights dimming, but it never failed to fill him with dread, knowing what came next.

“The Ink Machine should be on now, right?”

“Yeah. We can go look if you want.”

“I mean, it’d be a waste to not see it right?” Bendy said with a shrug. “Come on, let’s go.”

Henry couldn’t help but notice a little hesitance in the demon’s voice, but before he could bring it up, Bendy was already on his way, so Henry just quietly followed.

As they got closer to the Ink Machine room, Henry could see Bendy grow more wary, his tail lashing from side to side nervously.

“Wha-? Why’s it all boarded up???” The little demon said, upon seeing the now haphazardly boarded entrance to the Ink Machine room.

“I don’t know.” Henry said, and he genuinely didn’t. He never knew why the room was blocked off after he turned the machine on. He wasn’t even sure who was boarding it up. Surely not the Ink Demon, right? Though the image of the Demon trying to hastily nail up the wooden planks before Henry arrived did make him crack up on multiple occasions. 

Henry moved towards the boards, and Bendy thankfully hung back. Henry knew what was coming, but it still got him every time.

As soon as he was in reach of the boards, the Ink Demon lunged at him through the gap between them in an attempt to grab him, causing him to jolt back and fall to the floor.

“Henry!!!”

In a flash, Bendy was next to him, trying to help him up by pulling on his arm. The Ink Demon stared at them, and Henry found himself frozen for once. It was usually a scare then the Demon would vanish as Henry ran for the exit. It never lingered. But now, it was staring at both Henry and Bendy, its grin twitching as it tilted it’s head.

Then, to Henry’s horror, it began to push on the boards, filling the air with the sound of splintering wood.

Henry was up then, scooping up Bendy with one arm as he started running. He heard the Ink Demon shred the boards behind them with a snarl, followed by the uneven thumping of its disfigured legs as it chased after them. The pipes began bursting around them, and Henry held Bendy closer to him, not wanting the little demon to get drenched. The toon curled up in his hold.

Henry could see the exit up ahead.

Just a little farther. Surely the Ink Demon wouldn’t follow them.

Just a few feet from the door, the ground under Henry cracked and splintered, falling away. Henry dropped into the newly created hole, and Bendy yelped in surprise, latching onto Henry as the pair went into a free fall.

They didn’t fall for long.

Henry’s back hit the ground and he coughed from the sudden impact.

“Henry?!” 

Bendy squirmed out of the animator’s arms, standing next to him and leaning over his face. He looked panicked, toonish eyes wide.

“Henry are you ok?!” 

Henry groaned, sitting up.

“I’m alright, Bendy.” Henry said, giving the worried demon a small smile. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“We fell through the floor Henry!”

“But we’re alive.”

Henry stood up, feeling his back pop, and he held back a wince. Then he looked down at Bendy, who still had a worried expression on his face.

“Bendy, I’m ok. I promise you.”

“Yeah yeah, I heard you. Doesn’t mean I can’t be worried about you.”

Henry smiled and patted the demon’s head, causing him to pout.

“Don’t be like that.” Henry said, picking up the little demon, who squirmed in protest.

“Nooooooooo! Henryyyyy, put me doooown!”

“Nope. Not until you stop pouting.”

Bendy huffed, still pouting, but he resigned himself to being carried.

Henry continued forward, vaguely remembering that the room should be flooded, but he honestly couldn’t care. It was probably better that it wasn’t flooded. He wasn’t sure how resilient Bendy was to the ink, and he didn’t want to find out the hard way.

Turns out, none of the rooms that were supposed to be flooded were, as though someone ahead of Henry had drained them. Henry silently thanked whoever had.

They came to the little workshop that was a few flights down, the words ‘THE CREATOR LIED TO US’ written on the wall. Henry set Bendy down, and the little demon sighed in relief. The animator then took the seeing tool out of his pocket and held it up in front of him, pointed at the words.

‘I LIED TO THEM’

Henry lowered the tool in surprise, looking at the words without the gold ink scrawled over them. Then he checked the hidden message again. He could have sworn it said ‘Joey lied to us’ the last few times he went through.

“Who lied?”

Henry jolted, having forgotten he had a companion for a moment. He turned to Bendy, who was looking up at him and waiting for an answer.

“I… don’t know.” Henry said. 

“Well, what’s that thing?” Bendy asked, pointing at the seeing tool.

Henry looked at the tool, then at Bendy, then back at the tool. Usually, he didn’t have to worry about explaining the tool to anyone, since no one was around to ask. He wasn’t even sure that he should share it with anyone. But he looked back at Bendy, who was still waiting expectantly, then he held out the tool to the demon.

Henry could trust him.

“It’s a seeing tool.” Henry explained as the toon took the tool, looking through it. “There are hidden messages on the walls. That lets me see them.”

“Do you know who’s leaving them?” Bendy asked, looking at the message on the wall.

“No. I don’t even know who made the tool.”

Bendy made a ‘huh’ noise, lowering the tool. Then he held it back out to Henry. He reached for it, then stopped. Then he lowered his hand.

“Know what, why don’t you hold onto it for me?” Henry said, picking up the axe that was on a nearby work table. “Don’t let it get broken.” 

Bendy looked at him incredulously, then at the tool.

“Alright, but I make no promises.” the demon said, and Henry smiled.

Henry cleared the boards off the doorway out of the room, and the pair continued forward, Henry hacking up any planks in their path. Bendy followed along behind, looking at the walls and floor with the seeing tool. Up ahead, Henry could see the ritual room, and he faltered for a moment. He really didn’t want Bendy to see him pass out.

As they got closer to the room, Henry could feel the room around them shake, especially as he got closer to the sigil in the middle of the small space. The animator felt a sharp tug on the back of his sweater and he looked over his shoulder. Bendy had his tail loosely wrapped around himself, and he looked extremely uneasy.

“Henry, I don’t think we’re supposed to be in here.”

Henry looked back at the sigil, then at Bendy. He gave the toon a wary smile. 

“It’ll be ok.” Henry said, though he wasn’t sure how believable it sounded. He continued forward, but Bendy hung back. The moment Henry stepped foot into the circle, he felt a sharp pain stab him in the head as visions flashed in front of him - a wheelchair, the Ink Machine, the Ink Demon - then he dropped, blacking out.

The last thing he heard was Bendy shouting his name.


End file.
